quotations about video games
As long as games are part of a thinking person's culturally balanced diet, I don't worry too much.
TOM BISSELL
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"On Video Games and Storytelling: An Interview with Tom Bissell", New Yorker, March 19, 2013
54% of gamers surveyed said video games provided better value for money than movies, music, and DVDs.
JAMIE MCKANE
"Video games are taking the world by storm", MyBroadband, April 29, 2017
Ever since gun violence became "normal" in our society, video games have been pointed to as a reason to explain real-world murders. I'm not here to say what causes people to shoot each other down in the streets, but I know one thing: Video games are not the problem.
JAKE MAGEE
"Press Start: Stop blaming real violence on video games already", GazetteXtra, April 19, 2017
I saw a news report recently that measured average video game use by American men between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five: twenty hours per week. Do you mean the flower of America's masculinity can't think of anything more important to do with twenty hours a week than sit in front of a video screen? Folks, this ain't normal. Can't we unplug already?
JOEL SALATIN
Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
Gamers have had enough of reality. They are abandoning it in droves--a few hours here, an entire weekend there, sometimes every spare minute of every day for stretches at a time--in favor of simulated environments and online games.
JANE MCGONIGAL
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
Like any entertainment medium, there are a huge variety of genres in video games. Therefore, when working out what your next favorite game will be, you first need to decide what kind of genre you want to be playing. From high-octane first person shooters like Battlefield, to highly engaging historical strategy games like Civilization V, to even time-wasters such as Candy Crush Saga. Before anything else, it's important to work out what genre of game you want to be playing.
TECHAERIS
"Three tips to finding your next favorite video game", Techaeris, May 1, 2017
In a way, trying to impress people with design or personality or whatever works to promote movies doesn't work with games because it takes the focus off the player who is supposed to be the star. The more the player is the star, the better a game you have.
SID MEIER
The Sid Meier Legacy
There are types of narrative that video games are not as adept at telling as a medium such as film or literature -- narratives that benefit from having the author maintain direct control over the story at all times (an impossibility in a video game, where the player has active agency). And, there are a number of major video game releases where the fact that they were trying to too hard to be movies, or relying too heavily on cutscenes, is a valid criticism. But this is far from an absolute, particularly in a medium that, particularly through the indie scene, is growing and developing storytelling tools in leaps and bounds.
ROBERT B. MARKS
"Video Games Aren't Just Better With Stories, They Are Stories", CGMagazine, May 1, 2017
Video games are nonlinear. In almost all cases, you don't simply start at the beginning and proceed along a predefined path to a conclusion. Like chess or Monopoly, different players have different experiences.
LAWRENCE KUTNER & CHERYL OLSON
Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do
Video games are part of a trend in cultural history that started 20,000 years ago, as the number and types of symbolic codes external to the individual mind went from none to few to many. In a world in which devices for external memory storage have become increasingly important, video games socialize the minds of players to deal with the symbolic systems of the computer, society's latest form of external memory storage.
BARRIE GUNTER
The Effects of Video Games on Children: The Myth Unmasked
Now that I've worked on a few games, I've grappled with the degree to which games are not really a writer's medium. Film's not really a writer's medium, either. Good writing certainly doesn't hurt, but it's not the thing that saves the day.... Games are primarily about a connection between the player, the game world, and the central mechanic of the game. They're about creating a space for the player to engage with that mechanic and have the world react in a way that feels interesting and absorbing but also creates a sense of agency.
TOM BISSELL
"On Video Games and Storytelling: An Interview with Tom Bissell", New Yorker, March 19, 2013
She looked like a character from a video game. One of those improbably busty, impossibly well-armed superchicks who could do acrobatics and hit the kill zone even while firing guns from both hands during a cartwheel.
JONATHAN MAYBERRY
Dead of Night
Just because several mass murderers liked violent games doesn't mean the games themselves caused the men to become violent. Isn't it more reasonable to conclude that mentally unstable men with the potential to kill would be more attracted to violent video games than the games brainwashed everyday dudes into becoming heartless killers? If a seemingly normal person went from playing a gory shooting game to killing people in real life without so much as batting an eye, I'm willing to wager mental illness played a much bigger role than harmless digital entertainment.
JAKE MAGEE
"Press Start: Stop blaming real violence on video games already", GazetteXtra, April 19, 2017
I think good game writing is a process of getting out of the player's way. You give him or her just enough to work with narratively, but ultimately you let the player tell his or her own story.
TOM BISSELL
"On Video Games and Storytelling: An Interview with Tom Bissell", New Yorker, March 19, 2013
Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon ...
TERRY PRATCHETT
alt.fan.pratchett, May 30, 1998
Psychos will always be psychos; they don't need video games to help them.
SCOTT RAMSOOMAIR
interview, GameCore, March 7, 2005
Many games, such as Minecraft, are better described as electronic places to visit than traditional video games, but in the process of interacting with them, we create experiences, which in turn become our narratives and stories.
ROBERT B. MARKS
"Video Games Aren't Just Better With Stories, They Are Stories", CGMagazine, May 1, 2017
In the modern era, the capacity of mainstream games to tell more complex, emotional stories has grown enormously. The arrival of high-definition visuals, the development of intensely accurate facial motion capture, and the recruitment of Triple A acting and writing talent has led to the creation of characters who are recognisable, relatable and intrinsically human. And when you have characters and environments that the player can understand and recognise as authentic, the need for vast heroic narratives is lessened.... Games aren't going to drop violence for romance or reasoning. But maybe we'll get more games in which the motivations are intricate and human, where the motivating factor isn't an evil sorcerer or the imminent heat death of the universe.
KEITH STUART
"Dawn of a new era: why the best video games are not about saving the world", The Guardian, April 19, 2017
If game playing leads to isolation or to integration into gaming communities with antisocial norms, one might expect less civic engagement or connection. On the other hand, to the extent that games are played with others or integrate youth into vibrant communities where healthy group norms are practiced and where teenagers' social networks can develop, games might well develop social capital.
JOSEPH KAHNE
The Civic Potential of Video Games
The old adage that "the journey is more important than the destination" is as true in gaming as it is in the real world. Pushing players to make their own way, without giving them tools that explain exactly where to go and how to get there, makes room for organic, emergent gameplay moments. These moments; The feeling of satisfaction when you point to a mountain in Breath of the Wild, then find and climb it; That adrenaline-fueled dash to safety in the Baker house; these are the kinds of experiences that so many players look for from video games, but so few games actually provide: The experience of escaping to somewhere new.
JON MARTINDALE
"Ignorance Really Is Bliss: Video Games Are Better When They Tell Us Less", Digital Trends, April 8, 2017